The present invention relates to detergent portions which are present within dimensionally stable hollow bodies comprising at least one compartment. The invention also relates to processes for producing such compartmented hollow bodies comprising detergent portions. The invention further relates to laundering, cleaning, and washing methods in which the detergent formulations are dosed in dimensionally stable hollow bodies having one or more separate compartments.
In the prior art it is extensively described how detergents have to date been made available to the consumer customarily in the form of spray-dried or granulated solid products or as liquid product. In accordance with the consumer's desire for easy dosing possibilities, the two conventional variants mentioned have been joined on the market by products in preportioned form, which are established and are likewise extensively described in the prior art. Descriptions can be found of detergents in the form of compressed shaped bodies, i.e., tablets, blocks, briquettes, rings, and the like, and also of pouch-packaged portions of solid and/or liquid detergents.
In the case of the single-dose amounts of detergents which are sold packaged in pouches, water-soluble film pouches are prevalent. They remove the need for the consumer to tear open the packaging. This enables an individual portion, sized for one washing or cleaning operation, to be dosed easily by inserting the pouch directly into the washing machine or dishwasher, especially into its rinse-in compartment, or by casting the pouch into a defined amount of water, in a bucket, bowl or basin, for example. The pouch surrounding the detergent portion dissolves without residue on reaching a certain temperature. Detergents packaged in water-soluble film pouches are also described in large number in the prior art. For instance, the earlier patent application DE 198 31 703 discloses a portioned detergent formulation in a pouch made of water-soluble film, in particular in a pouch made of (optionally acetalized) polyvinyl alcohol (PVAL), in which at least 70% by weight of the particles of the detergent formulation have sizes >800 μm. Pouches of this kind are indeed very consumer-friendly and facilitative of dosing but are not in all cases the appropriate form for dosing detergent formulations, especially when solid and liquid detersive formulations are to be dosed alongside one another. Furthermore, such pouches do not allow the incorporation of detergent formulations present in unstable or highly volatile phases into the detergent portion.
The document DE-A 20 65 153 describes shaped surfactant bodies which comprise a plurality of components and are composed of an outer shell of sodium silicate with laundry detergent components enclosed therein. The silicate shell is produced by compression molding in two hemispheres which, after they have been filled with the amount of laundry detergent components sufficient for one wash, are placed together and joined to form the shaped body. The process is extremely impractical and does not lead to utilizable laundry detergent portions.
The document DE-A 20 07 413 describes detergent shapes comprising a core of one or more laundry detergent components and a shell of compression-molded envelope material composed predominantly of sodium metalilicate. The compression of the envelope material to form half-shells and the filling and welding of the half-shells to form the finished shape require a complex technology, and many of the shapes fragment before they reach the laundering operation.
The documents DE-A 198 34 181, DE-A 198 34 180 and DE-A 198 34 172 describe detergent/limescale remover formulations comprising a tablet which is produced by compression molding, is composed of two identical halves, and comprises one or more detergent components, and a core which is provided where appropriate with an additional envelope and comprises a further detergent component. Aside from the fact that in this case too the only possible production process is complex and involves a number of stages, only a solid core can be incorporated into the tablet envelope unless premature dissolution of the tablet from the inside is to be initiated.
The invention was based on the object of providing detergent formulations in which readily volatile detersive components can be formulated alongside less volatile detersive components or in which mechanically unstable components can be incorporated without detriment to their integrity—during compression to form shaped bodies, for example. The invention was additionally based on the object of separating detergent components physically from one another while still formulating them in the same detergent portion, with the aim of minimizing any exchange of substances or any mutual impairment, which under certain circumstances might be connected with losses in activity. This would also have the advantage that the storage stability of the detergent formulations could be considerably increased and also that the concentration of active substance could be lowered in individual cases, since in the prior art, in connection with the calculation of these concentrations, it has always been necessary to provide an overdose owing to an expected loss of activity on the part of some components.
Surprisingly it has now been found that detergent portions can be filled into dimensionally stable hollow bodies having one or more separate compartments, so making it possible to provide dose amounts of the respective compositions which have considerable performance advantages as compared with compact shaped bodies or pouch-packaged formulations.